It is known to use historical product demand data to predict future product demand in the context of management of a supply chain. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,953,707 and 6,151,582 to Huang et al. are both directed to management of a supply chain. Huang et al. disclose linking point of sale (POS) data, where available, to historical promotion information to analyze the impact of promotion activities on demand for products
There is a need, however, in the context of a supply chain system having stores associated with specific distribution centers (DCs), to provide a product demand forecast model that allows POS data obtained for a short time during a promotion to be used to determine the product demand for stores associated with the DCs for the remaining promotion. There is also a need to treat the DCs differently in determining the product demand depending on whether sufficient current POS data has been obtained for stores associated with the DC.